Official disclosure rule may change

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched an independent review of the legislation in October 2007.

The panel, chaired by Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Daily Mail-owner Associated Newspapers, was tasked with considering whether the period of time before official records are made public should be reduced from 30 years.

Cutting it to 15 or 20 years would bring forward the publication of key documents from Margaret Thatcher's time in power, including papers relating to the 1982 Falklands War and the 1984 miners' strike.

There was no right of access to Government records until the Public Records Act 1958 introduced a 50-year rule. This was reduced to 30 years in 1967.

Also sitting on the review panel with Mr Dacre are historian Professor Sir David Cannadine and Sir Joseph Pilling, former Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office.

It will be for the Government to decide whether or not to act on their recommendations.